Not Just a Children's Story

Unfortunately this is such a wonderful story for little children, we relegate it to that. When my children were little in Israel I used to tell them this bedtime story at least once a week. They’d want to hear it again and again and they used to sing in Galilee, “David melech Yisra’el, chai chai v’kayam David melech Yisra’el, chai chai v’kayam”.

They loved hearing it again and again. Yes, it is a wonderful bedtime story for little children.

I do not understand why there are even Christians who’ll read Harry Potter, story of the devil, instead of David and Goliath. There’s no such thing as Harry Potter and they try to defend Harry Potter by saying it teaches little children about things like coverage and integrity. Harry never existed, and if he did he’d never have any courage or integrity. But King David really did exist. I don’t need a fantasy or a fairy tale to teach little children about courage and integrity and faith, I’ve got a real story.

And so we teach it in Sunday School, the story of David and Goliath, to engender faith and courage. That is all true. Unfortunately that’s what we’ve made of it, a Sunday School story for little kids. It is that and it’s good for that, but there's much more to it than that. Somehow most of the mainstream leaders of the church in evangelical Britain and elsewhere do not.

“How are we going to stop Goliath? He’s so aggressive, so powerful, so big, so well-armed, so malicious, so vicious, so hostile, how can we stop him? How can we stand the onslaught of homosexuality and lesbianism? It’s taking over the schools, we have to let them teach it to our children! How can we stop it? How can we withstand Islam? What can we do? Just look at them! Nobody will dare speak against them! Everyone’s afraid! The church is afraid! What can we do? What? Darwinism – all biomedical information is predicated on it from the time you’re a little kid to the time you’re a Ph.D.! What can we do about it? What? How can we stop the invasion? What can we do? What? What?”

The question is not “what”, the question has never been “what”. “Here” is “what”. Find the soft spot, find the stone, learn how to shoot, and pick up his own sword. “What” to do is not the question – we know what to do. The Word of God tells us want to do. “What to do” is not the question, the question, my dear brethren in Jesus, is not “what”, the question is “who”.